Acting: Rehearsing the Play

Notes/Restrictions

Description

This class approaches acting from the belief that an actor's job is learning how to rehearse. During the semester we investigate what makes for joyful, effective, and exciting rehearsal, striving to develop a process that is as powerful as any performance. How do we make the events of the play happen "in the room?" How do we take responsibility for what our character says and does from the first read-through? How do we connect with poetic or complicated language? How do we speak and listen from the same "place?" What is the purpose of "table work?" How do we make authentic physical choices? As we pursue these questions, we engage with several of the actor's technical and artistic challenges and focus on developing the acting instrument through voice and speech, physicality, and style work. We begin with Shakespearean monologues to build a common vocabulary, and move to modern and contemporary scene work that culminates in a public presentation—giving each student the chance to share his/her work with an audience. Students must wear appropriate rehearsal clothes and will be asked to rehearse outside of class time.